LeBron James' new Akron school is a promise worth celebrating

The I Promise School in Akron welcomed 240 students in third and fourth grade on Monday, July 30.

Stage 4 of LeBron James' NBA career will be played in Los Angeles.

The first three acts — a 15-season run that has included three championships, four MVPs, 14-time All-Star selections and 12-time first-team all-league honors — have cemented "The kid from Akron" as one of the two best players of all time.

His choice of the Lakers in free agency has been debated all month, and it's difficult to visit social media or ESPN without seeing and hearing his résumé, while seemingly unassailable, being dissected.

But what's taken place in Akron the last couple months, a time in which James' I Promise School was being readied for its first two grades, is the type of accomplishment that merits discussion. It's the type of development that deserves all of the accolades. It's an initiative that might even make Skip Bayless say or tweet something nice. (For now, Skip seems to be distracted by LeBron having fun dunking with kids over the weekend.)

The I Promise School opened Monday, July 30, with 240 students — 120 each in third and fourth grade. By 2022, James' foundation anticipates that the school will house almost 1,000 kids in Grades 1-8.

Students who were "a year, two years behind in reading," were selected for the school, Keith Liechty, the Akron Public Schools' liaison to James' foundation, told USA Today.

Students are provided supplies and some I Promise gear. They get breakfast, lunch and a snack each day.

Their parents and caregivers can take GED classes, and representatives from the Summit County Department of Jobs and Family Services will aid in the search for employment and other services.

Sneakers James wore in games are displayed prominently on the entrance walls (the other half of the pair will be sold by Upper Deck, with proceeds going to the school and foundation). Heck, there's even a media lab, courtesy of Kaulig Companies Limited and designed by WKYC, that will double as an experiential learning center.

Sounds pretty sweet, right?

Well, this school is no joke.

The days are long — 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. — and the school year starts at the end of the July and goes past the middle of May. And when the school year ends, seven weeks of STEM training will be offered.

The I Promise reach, however, extends beyond the new school at 400 West Market Street.

There are more than 1,300 Akron students and families in the program. Students who are eligible for the program, graduate from high school and complete specific criteria in the classroom will receive a four-year scholarship to the University of Akron.

Sunday afternoon, James tweeted that he had first-day-of-school jitters and brought up that he missed 83 days of school in fourth grade. The following year, with the help of the Walker family in Akron, he had perfect attendance.

"We all know which path he took. He took the right path with some very good people around him, and now we know him as the world's best basketball player," Michele Campbell, the executive director of the LeBron James Family Foundation, told USA Today. "He could've taken the other road, and we would've never known LeBron James. He would've been a statistic like a lot of students who drop out of school."

The I Promise stats will be way more meaningful than a LeBron James-Michael Jordan debate.